After years of causing
grief for IT pros in enterprises around the globe, Apple acceptance has begun. Long
before the company’s partnership with IBM was announced last week, a large majority had come to terms with
the new enterprise IT paradigm. Some got there kicking and screaming, others
may have had no choice and for the rest…they led the pack. With iOS devices and
Macs now hitting networks at a feverish pace, there is a concerted organizational
effort to get them managed.

What stage of acceptance
are you in right now?

Denial. It’s more than just a river in Egypt. “If I ignore those new, shiny machines, maybe they’ll go away.”

A
recent survey from Dimension Research and JAMF found Apple’s share of the
enterprise market has doubled in just three years, with nine out of 10
companies now officially supporting Apple products (91 percent support iPhones,
89 percent iPads and 60 percent Mac computers). Thankfully, the vast majority
of organizations have moved beyond this denial stage. It’s 2014. If you’re
still in denial, you may want to consider a new line of work.

Procrastination. There’s always a
more important project…right? “Sure, I’ll
figure out a solution for Macs once I finish the rest of the projects on my
list for this year.”

Attempting
to postpone the inevitable isn’t going to be productive for anyone. In fact, 98
percent of survey respondents expect the number of Apple devices to grow at
their business by at least 25 percent over the next three years, and many think
that number will be much higher. Hesitating now may only make things worse and
could put you at risk for a security breach. So get crackin’!

Bargaining. Hoping that if you
give an inch, employees and staff won’t take a mile. “OK, so if I approve this iMac, you’ll be sure to only download
company-approved apps, right?”

Corporate
policies are not up for debate. Well-designed and comprehensive policies can be
rolled out seamlessly so that end users – and their Macs – can be managed and
company data protected. Nine out of ten enterprises understand that Apple
device setup and enablement requires IT involvement. 40 percent plan to meet
this influx by allocating larger IT budgets, while 20 percent say they will
hire more staff to handle Apple product implementation. Where does that leave
the rest?

Pre-emptive. Realizing that meeting
halfway isn’t working. “Hear me out for a
minute…what if we embraced Apple products in the business? Let’s do some
research.”

Six out of ten
enterprises support more than 100 Apple devices, while nearly two in ten
support a thousand or more. And finding the right solution may be the biggest
point of contention among respondents – 80 percent of those surveyed were not
satisfied with the Apple device management solution or program currently in use
by their organization.

Acceptance – There are some
great tools out there; this could be less painful than you thought. “Wow! We can actually get this done with
minimal disruption within a reasonable budget!”

The
challenge of incorporating Macs into a Windows-centric environment is a hefty
task. Recognize that there are Mac management strategies that work. As the
leader in making Windows and Mac work together seamlessly, Parallels answers
the call for keeping Macs under control with software solutions for businesses
of all sizes...something that our current customers can attest to from
first-hand experience:

Countless industry
studies have shown the rate of adoption for Apple products in the enterprise continuing
to grow significantly, and that should only accelerate under Apple’s
partnership with IBM. Parallels has solutions to help IT pros manage this.